Amy Ryan’s scene-stealing performance in Gone Baby Gone triggered a flood of Best Supporting Actress nominations, including nods from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and Oscars.
As the Academy Awards draw near, audiences have a chance to see her in action when Gone Baby Gone comes to DVD Feb. 12. Ryan plays Helene, an addict who finds herself in the spotlight after her daughter is abducted. Amidst a media frenzy the struggling mom must work with police and private investigators to find her missing daughter.
Ryan rang up Hollywood.com recently to chat about the nominations, her flubbed audition and how even Boston native Ben Affleck thought she was from Bean Town.
Hollywood.com: How are you handling all this attention and all the nominations?
Amy Ryan: It goes in waves. I’m having a really good laugh and living on Airborne [laughs]. It’s so hard. Even if there are days that are harder than others I remind myself constantly that these are good problems to have.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: Are you ready for Oscar night? Do you have your dress picked out?
AR: Oh, God. I haven’t a clue! You know, the dress that I wore [to the Screen Actors Guild Awards], the Donna Karan dress, was the first dress that I tried on. So that’s a good lesson. If you like it there’s no need to keep going. Just go along with that. [PAGEBREAK]
HW: What about your acceptance speech? Did you get a chance to write that up yet?
AR: No. I don’t think there’s a need for that [laughs]. If I’m so lucky I will just speak from the heart. [PAGEBREAK]
HW: It is great the DVD is coming out just in time for the Oscars.
AR: Well, hopefully it’ll be a wider audience and more people will get to see it. Unfortunately a lot of people haven’t seen it. We’re lucky in that it was an embarrassment of riches of great films this year. So I hope that the DVD will just bring in a wider audience because it’s a great story, a great movie, a thrilling story, and Ben [Affleck] is a director to really watch out for.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: Was there a point on the set or even reading the script that you realized this might be a role of a lifetime for you?
AR: Yes, when I got the script for the audition. At first though I read the first two scenes and I was like, “Great.” Then I saw that she kept coming back and I thought, “There’s no chance in hell that I’m going to get this part. It’s too good. It’s too good.” I thought that there would be a long list of ladies that it would go to. I know that movies get sold because of people with more note and recognition. So I didn’t really even think that there was a chance of getting it, but I knew from reading it that it was rare and juicy.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: The DVD includes audio commentary about the casting of the film. What do you recall from your audition?
AR: I auditioned for Ben out in Los Angeles. I live in New York. We read about four scenes from the script and he had said or asked me where in Boston I was from. I told him that I was from New York and I think that he was very taken with that because he said, “I’ve never been fooled before.” So I think he was thrilled about that because that sound was so important to him, getting that accent right, so much so that he cast a lot of local actors and non-actors to make sure that the film didn’t have a note out of key.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: Which scenes did you read through in the audition?
AR: The interrogation scenes with Ed Harris in the movie and then the last scene in the movie which was really tricky for me. I understood it mentally, but I couldn’t quite do it in the room and I thought, “Oh, I just blew it. I just blew this job.” We talked about it. I said, “Yeah, I get what she’s doing.” So, actually I tried to flub my way through it with Ben [laughs]. I was like, “She would do this and this.” It’s like when you hear a song in your head and then you sing it and it’s off key–it felt like that with that scene.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: Did you know Ben going into this?
AR: No. I’d never met him before the audition and I was so taken with him from the minute that I walked into that office. First of all, he’s a very kind and generous and welcoming person. He’s the smartest man in the room. He really is. I knew it was going to be an exciting project to be a part of because obviously there were going to be a lot of eyes on him, can he or can’t he direct and how beautiful the proof is in the pudding. He’s just a really wonderful actor and writer and to have that as a resource when you’re creating a role, he came up with brilliant ideas along the way and just handed them to me on a silver platter and then gave me the credit [laughs].[PAGEBREAK]
HW: Do you think that’s because he’s an actor too?
AR: Yeah. I think it has to do a lot with him being an actor and also because he knows Boston so well so if there were some elements that I might’ve shied away from he’d just give me some pushes, like, “No. This is true. You can do that here. This would be true to that character in this neighborhood.” [PAGEBREAK]
HW: What sort of a back story did you create for Helene or did you?
AR: No. A lot of the stuff that didn’t make it into the script I read out of Dennis [Lehane] novel. He goes into great description, two pages maybe of some of her thought processes as she’s watching Wife Swap two days after her kid was kidnapped. Also, then just physically it was really just taking on that accent and greasing up the hair and the makeup. I said to the hair and makeup people, ‘I think that she looked pretty good three days ago, her version of good, and then when the news happened that her child was kidnapped I don’t think she’s washed her hair or her face since. She’s probably been in the same clothes too.’ I thought that was just a good place to start for her.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: You’ve had such a career in theater, television and film. Who inspired you and made you want to become an actor?
AR: Oh, gosh, it was really like Shirley MacLaine and as I got older it was the performances of and watching Meryl Streep and even Cate Blanchett. These are women that I’ve drawn great inspiration from over the years. It’s really been like a tapestry of performances from women and Gene Hackman even…it’s just endless.[PAGEBREAK]
HW: What was the best acting advice you’ve ever received and who was it from?
AR: It was from a friend named Chris Bauer who’s an actor on The Wire. He plays Sobotka and he said, “Get out of your own way.”
